July/August 2015 - Child Health

I hope that everyone is enjoying the summer months and finding some time for yourselves and your families. I can't think of a better way to relax than to find a shady spot, have a cool drink, and review the latest copy of Pulse! Our members, partners and staff have pulled together a variety of items for this issue that are focused on child health. [more]

FROM THE CEO

By Lori Tremmel Freeman, BS, MBAChief Executive Officer, AMCHP

Happy Anniversary, everyone!

This is truly a year of milestones for our important work. This year marks the 25th anniversary of theAmericans with Disabilities Act, and 40th of theIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act. Medicaid also celebrates 50 years and Title V will celebrate 80 years this August. Now is an opportune time to celebrate these anniversaries and consider ongoing practice and policy priorities and implications for moms, dads and their families. It also is a time to examine how far we've come, where we want to go and the opportunities to help us get there. [more]

FEATURES

Wyoming Uses the AMCHP Life Course Indicators to Shift Early Childhood Focus

By Danielle MarksWomen and Infant Health Program Manager, Wyoming Department of Health

Michelle SullivanPrincipal Organizer, Building Communities Where Children and Families Thrive

In 2014, a coalition of Wyoming early childhood stakeholders initiated efforts to shift a focus on school readiness (Kindergarten/Pre-K) to broader, more integrated, community-based efforts. The new focus emphasized investment in the prenatal period and in early childhood relationships. The coalition envisioned a multisectoral, community-based partnership that addresses upstream determinants of health and building community prosperity. [more]

As part of their work with the National MCH Workforce Development Center (the Center) Cohort 2 intensive training and adaptive consultation, Guam is seeking to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for alignment of early childhood programs in several areas of their infrastructure, including public health and education systems. The project aims to analyze current systems of early childhood education, health and social services, develop common measures across systems and close gaps in early childhood programs. [more]

CDC Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Progress and Early Lessons Learned

By Sandra Alexander, Joanne Klevens and Renee WrightDivision of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments are essential for healthy development and can prevent or buffer adverse childhood experiences, such as child maltreatment, which have serious immediate and lifelong negative consequences. [more]

CHIP and the Affordable Care Act: Positive Changes and Questions for the Future

Created in 1997, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was designed to finance health care for children caught in a coverage gap â€" those whose families earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford commercial health insurance. At the time of passage, Medicaid eligibility levels for children ranged from 100-133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) nationally, and the uninsured rate for children under the age of 19 was 14 percent. Enactment of CHIP, coupled with changes in Medicaid, raised eligibility levels for children over time to a median of 235 percent FPL. [more]

Aug. 1-7, 2015 is World Breastfeeding Week. The theme this year is "Let's Make it Work!" Within this theme, there is a call for "concerted global action to support women to combine breastfeeding and work." The opportunity to fulfill this call to action in the United States is better than ever. [more]

The Raising of America: Using Partnerships to Strengthen and Leverage the Importance of Early Childhood and the Future of our Nation

By Piia Hanson, MPHSenior Program Manager, Women's & Infant Health, AMCHPKate Taft, MPHSenior Program Manager, Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs, AMCHPAs we shared in Pulse last winter, The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of Our Nation is a five-part documentary series scheduled for national broadcast in November 2015, that explores how a strong start for all our kids can lead to a healthier, stronger and more equitable America. The Raising of America documentary series and public engagement campaign consists of three parts: 1) a documentary series, 2) a national public engagement campaign, and 3) a companion website. [more]

In 2010, 13,819 children and adolescents aged zero to 19 died of an injury. An estimated 310,500 were hospitalized and more than nine million were treated and released from the emergency department. Another 12 million plus injuries were treated in physician offices. However, these numbers tell only part of the story. While incidence data are useful for assessing the magnitude of the problem, costs better account for multiple injury consequences -- death, severity, disability, body region, nature of injury -- in a single unit of measurement. [more]

VIEW FROM WASHINGTON

By Brent Ewig, MHSDirector, Public Policy & Government Affairs, AMCHP

My wife and I recently began making plans for a trip sometime next spring to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Check with me this time next year for photos and stories of what I'm sure will be a fantastic adventure! More immediately, AMCHP is observing two policy-focused anniversaries. These include the 50th anniversary of the Social Security Amendments of 1965 -- which created the Medicaid program on Jul. 30, 1965 -- and the 80th anniversary of the underlying Social Security Act -- which created Title V maternal and child health program on Aug. 14, 1935. [more]

REAL LIFE STORIES

CYSHCN and Oral HealthA visit to the dentist can be challenging for any parent. Add a child with special health care needs to the equation and it can become infinitely more difficult. Following are real life stories from parents of children with special health care needs and how they challenge the system to get the care their children need. [more]

Who would have thought that mentoring could be so critical to a boy's health? When the Boys' Health Advocacy Program began in South Dakota 10 years ago, the advocates accepted referrals of boys, ages four to 17, with unmet health care needs and ensured that they received medical, optical, and dental care. In time, they came to realize that their clients' overall health and well-being was much more complex. [more]

Supporting Couples at the Transition to Parenthood: Family Foundations

By Mark E. FeinbergResearch Professor, Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State UniversityThe Department of Defense concern with a service member's readiness for duty has transformed over the past decade with the recognition that "family readiness" is a key factor determining an individual's operational capacity. The growing awareness of family readiness has prompted a move to develop and disseminate programs for military families that support positive family functioning, such as Family Foundations. [more]

Georgia Shape Targets Childhood Obesity

By Emily Anne Vall, PhDObesity Project Manager (Georgia Shape), Office of the Chief of Staff, Georgia Department of Public Health

Georgia Shape is a statewide, multiagency initiative of Gov. Nathan Deal that brings together governmental, philanthropic, academic and business communities to address childhood obesity in Georgia.

In 2009, Georgia mandated statewide fitness assessments through public school physical education classes and currently assesses more than one million students annually. Georgia Shape is diligently working toward improving student body mass index (BMI) and aerobic capacity (AC) measures through various statewide physical activity and nutrition interventions. [more]

MEMBER TO MEMBERWe asked AMCHP members: How has the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) helped build your state capacity to improve state infant and toddler child care quality? [more]

Submit Your AMCHP 2016 Session Proposal Today!We invite you to submit a session proposal for the 2016 Annual AMCHP Conference (January 23 to 26). The theme for the 2016 conference is The Future is Now: Integrating MCH Transformations.The AMCHP Annual Conference is the ideal venue to present your ideas, research, innovative programming, best practices, and effective strategies to MCH and other public health practitioners, directors of state programs, federal officials, advocates, family leaders, researchers, and health care providers. [more]

National MCH Workforce Development Center Coffee Talk Series -- Don't Miss the Final Presentation!This series, hosted by the National MCH Workforce Development Center Change Management, concludes with the final topic â€" managing change. The series consists of an archived 20-minute video for AMCHP members to access at their leisure and an AMCHP-hosted Twitter chat on the content shared during the archived video. [more]

MCH Workforce Center Cohort 4 Application Deadline ExtendedThe National MCH Workforce Development Center has extended its deadline for applications to its Cohort 4 training and practice laboratory program. Consider working with the Center to enhance the capacity of your workforce to implement new Title V action plans with skills in systems integration, change management, and quality improvement. [more]

National MCH Workforce Development Center Coffee Talk Series -- Check Out Video 3 Today!This series will be hosted by the National MCH Workforce Development Center Change Management core on three pertinent topics benefiting the Title V workforce. The series will consist of three archived 20-minute videos for AMCHP members to access bi-monthly at their leisure. [more]